Rockpile
Fernie Brewing Co.

 

 

 

 

 

Mmm hmm. FBC is really hitting its stride, and this beer is living proof. It pours beautifully, with a substantial beige foam head. The rich colour complements the hoppy, bready aroma that wafts up. This beer has all of the taste notes I love best - malt, coffee, and a delicious resiny hop finish. There is a lot happening in this beer, and I love it!

 

 

 

 

 

Poured from a bottle snagged from local liquor store (Silver Springs ... Thanks Colin!) into an Oktoberfest glass. This red IPA is a deep dark bronze color with around four inches of tannish head. I am less into the purely visual aspects of beer presentation than some but this one stands out as a looker. Aroma impressive as well, rich toffee, dark bread, and assertive hops that evoke grapefruit and orange, pineapple, and smooth pine. Palate is malty, nutty, and sweet but delivers the IPA goods as well. Weedy, resinous hops surprise one expecting the typical low key hopping you get with most red ales, some grapefruit and orange show up as promised by the aroma, along with pot resin, pineapple, hints of cat pee, and earthy tea leaf. The malts and yeast combine to yield a pretty complex mosaic of cherries, raisins, butterscotch, and brown spices ... The fruity elements combine with the pine resin to produce a bit of a cherry cough lozenge effect. Nice chewy dextrinous body with moderate carbonation and a wet but bitter finish that evokes wood and nuts. Wow. The resinous, citrus, and tropical hop notes stand up well to the fruity malt sweetness and Fernie has a winner here.

 

Appearance - Pours a coppery brown with a finger width of bubbly beige head.

Smell - Piney hops, malts, grapefruit peel, brown sugar and caramel

Taste - Bitter piney hops and grapefruit with sweetness balancing from the brown sugar, caramel and malts.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.

Overall - An enjoyable red IPA by Fernie. Good balance of bitter and sweet in the taste. Would have liked some more hops in the aroma, but that may be more of a personal preference.

650ml bottle. A 'red' IPA - so is this a RIPA, or is that moniker already taken by the rye-based variety?

This beer pours a clear, medium red-brick amber hue, with two fingers of rather bubbly, and very loosely foamy beige head, which leaves some streaky webbed lace around the glass as things sink away.

It smells of bitter grapefruit, orange, and lemon rind, lightly roasted caramel malt, toasted bread, a slight wet flintiness, and further herbal, piney hops. The taste maintains the initial bitterness from the nose, with some almost acrid generic citrus and stripped pine needles, countermanded somewhat weakly by a bready, toffee-tinged caramel malt, continuing metallic stoniness, and a backup band of herbal, leafy, and earthy hops.

The carbonation is present, but in a sort of blase, lackadaisical manner, the body medium-light in weight, and adequately smooth, I suppose, that hard water edge seeping in after a while. It finishes rather dry, the citrus and piney hops pushing the malt into plain grain territory, and the stoniness holding tough.

A tasty, if a little thinly rendered hoppy red ale. Maybe it's the name, but it seems that I keep coming back to the 'rocky' aspects, doesn't it? Not a bad thing, it keeps down the sweetness, a typical amber ale flaw, IMHO. With a duly obfuscated enhanced ABV, this one is certainly worth a try.

650ml bomber poured into tulip 29/10/13

A reddish amber with just a few bubbles feeding a long lasting thick beige film that leaves just a few patches of lace

S herbal and citric hops, a hint of pine, iced tea powder, hard toffee, and some dry cereal, faint pennies, smells like a hopped up red alright

T leafy herbal tea, the faintest nutty coco aspect, a little grapefruit rind, everything I smells still there in one form or another but Its a small step backwards

M medium bodied, IBU's are noticeable, creamy from the bubbles, a little rind and pine lingering, no complaints in this department

O no problems with this one, went down like a sinking ship, no booze anywhere, has some balance between the malt and hops,

Unlike some of Fernie's regular offerings this ones well worth a try, perhaps I should give these guys some more credit as I rather enjoyed this one